City pedestrian plan meeting draws new ideas from public
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on March 2, 2014 1:50 AM
The core planning group for the Goldsboro pedestrian transportation plan met Thursday to gather ideas from the community.
The pedestrian plan will encompass greenways, sidewalks and bicycle transportation.
It will build off the Stoney Creek corridor as well as branching off of the sections of greenway serving as a bike path along New Hope Road, but will not be locked into those locations.
"The plan will likely include a primary route down Ash Street and Royall," Goldsboro Parks and Recreation Director Scott Barnard said. "We asked people, 'Where do you see people walking,' and the answers ran the gamut, but the main ones filtering out were Royall and then Ash."
During the input session, many of the participants wanted to see new greenway routes linking in with existing paths along New Hope Road heading toward the hospital.
"People also want to see the north-to-south corridor completed to connect down to Slocumb," Barnard said. "They also want to see an east to west corridor along with that as well. That just happens to be the Mountains to Sea Trail."
Barnard said that for some, the pedestrian plan means a trail off of the road and for others a sidewalk or in-road bike plane such as in front of City Hall on Center Street.
"I wouldn't say we ran into anything we didn't expect," Barnard said.
As the meetings continue in different areas of the city, Barnard said he expects so see more and more ideas.
The Goldsboro Metropolitan Planning Organization is the planning organization for the work on the pedestrian plans.
The MPO entered into a contract with Alta/Greenways, which worked on the Mountains to Sea Trail, to plan out the city's pedestrian plan for $226,000.
The city's 20 percent match for the planning will be $43,000, with an $11,000 health component being paid through a community transformation grant.
The state Department of Transportation will pay the remaining $172,000.
The MPO also hired URS, a Morrisville transportation planning firm, to update the city's transportation plan at a cost of almost $200,000.
Goldsboro will cover about $40,000 of the cost, with DOT picking up the rest of the bill.